Suspicious Lesion Goes Untested by Family Doctor

Case Overview

This case takes place in Illinois and involves a female patient who presented to her family doctor with a lesion on her right shoulder. The physician visually inspected the patient’s shoulder, but provided no diagnosis, instructing the patient to “keep an eye on it”. After a few months, the patient presented to the same doctor again, expressing her concerns about the same lesion. The family physician referred the patient to a dermatologist who took a biopsy of the lesion, at which point she was diagnosed with melanoma. She required extensive surgery on her shoulder to remove the cancer, resulting in the removal of significant muscle tissue and lymph nodes. It is alleged that the patient should have been referred to a specialist to inspect the lesion when she first showed it to her family physician.